Senators battle back for first win

OTTAWA — Finally, a win.
On the opening night of their 20th season in the NHL, the Ottawa Senators got the same result they did in 1992-93: a victory.

Milan Michalek, Jason Spezza, and Daniel Alfredsson all scored in a shootout to give the Senators a 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild. Spezza’s goal was the actual game-winning goal.

Before a crowd of 19,455, the Senators, now 1-2-0, fought back from two two-goal deficits.

Nick Foligno, with his first goal (and point) of the season, Chris Neil, with a goal that had to be reviewed before being confirmed, and Colin Greening, with a third-period power-play goal, scored for the Senators in regulation.

Neil also had an assist and eight hits, while Peter Regin, in his first game of the season, had two assists.
“It feels great,” said Chris Phillips.

“In all three games, we’ve worked hard, and it’s nice to rewarded for our efforts. And to script it on opening night with the way it turned out, with a shootout, it makes the victory that much sweeter at the end.”

Kyle Brodziak, Devin Setoguchi, with a power-play goal, and Nick Johnson, with a goal that also had to be reviewed before being confirmed, scored for the Wild.

Greening had an extra reason to feel good about his goal, which tied the game at 3-3: his parents were in from St. John’s, N.L., for the game.

”That was kind of nice, and weirdly, maybe I scored it for them,” he said.

“But it was such a big event here, walking the red carpet and with so many people coming out early to the game, it meant a lot, because everyone realizes that this year is kind of a big year for us, because we have all these new faces, so it’s nice to get a win for them.”

Anderson said the win was important because it tells the Senators they’re headed in the right direction.
“Now we understand it’s a team game and if you play the right way, you’re going to get results,” he said.

“Tonight we deserved to win. We outplayed them and we took it to them.”

The Senators outplayed the Wild for much of the first period, but Backstrom bought his teammates enough time to get settled, and at 8:41 they managed to come up with a fluky goal at 8:41 for a 1-0 lead.

Brodziak got his stick on a shot by Clayton Stoner and the deflection surprised Anderson, going up and over his glove.

Then, with 48.7 seconds left, Setoguchi made it 2-0 with Spezza in the penalty box serving a selfish slashing penalty.

Spezza didn’t like it when Minnesota rookie Brett Bulmer hit him along the boards by the Ottawa bench. So when Spezza got up, he skated over to Bulmer and slashed him across the legs.